PLATE XLIX. 35 



ipeciesj immediately that tlie warmth of the fun has hatched them, 

 they difperfe, it being no longer neceffary to live in focieties, which 

 indeed, would deprive fome of their fubfiftence. 



In February we took a neft of minute yellowiih eggs, which proved 

 to be the infant offspring of the A. Diadema, they fcarcely exceeded the 

 fize of a pin's head when hatched, and v/ere of a bright yellow colour ; 

 at firi'l their food was the common houfe fly, but their increafe in bulk 

 was fo rapid that it was necelTary to deilroy many, to preferve a icw j 

 we therefore fele£l:ed four fpecimens, which being fed in feparate 

 glalTes, and on different infers, exhibited each a diftintl degree of 

 ftrength, and colour. One fpecimen deitroyed thirty of the common 

 houfc fly in a day; it then appeared much enlarged, and the colours 

 were almoft black, except the fpots of white, which fparkled v/ith 

 infinite luftre ; but being confined a week without a freih fupply, its 

 colours were confiderably faded ; another week of abflinence reduced 

 its colours to a pale uniform brown, the body v/as much wafted, and 

 the creature became perfedly ravenous. It devoured a vaft quantity 

 of food, and recovered much of its former colours a few hours after. 



Our largefl: Spiders are incomparable for their fize, or venomous 

 qualities, to the produdions of America, or of the eaflern countries j 

 in Germany they are far fuperior in' fize to our Ipccimens, but in 

 Surinam they are infinitely furpaffed, Spiders of thofe parts being 

 often found with legs as thick as a goofe-quill, and three or four inches 

 in length, which with difficulty fupport a body as large as a pullet's 

 egg. Their fnares are commonly extended from one branch of a tree 

 to another, covering the fpace of twenty or thirty feet, and is fufH- 

 ciently ftrong to entangle the largefl infedb. A. Seba has figured a 

 ^Spider of this defcription, as defcending from an arrh of a tree, imp the 

 neft of a fmall fpecies of Humming Bird, to fuck the blood of the 

 parent, and eggs. 



" The eyes of the Spider are a very beautiful microfcopic objecf:, 

 viewed either as tranfparent or opake ; they have generally eight, two on 

 the top of the head, that look directly upv.'ards i two in the front, a little 

 below the foregoing, to difcover v/hat pafTes before it ; and on each 

 liae a couple more, one v> hereof points fideways forward, the other 

 lidev/ays backvvaru ; fo that it can fee almoft all around it. Tney are 

 immoveable, and feem to be formed of a hard, tranfparent, horny fub- 

 ftance. The number of eyes is not the fame in all the fpecies of the 

 Jb' 2 Spider. 



